Wrap-up Mosaics: the Many Expressions of Nikolay Dadyvenko

1) Here I was thinking that I’d rather sharpen pencils than have a conversation with Nikolay Davydenko, lo and behold, he proves to be mildly theatrical.

Normalcy in my tennis universe is now threatening to crash down on me.

 

 

Here’s the paradox with Koyla. Every time I watch him play, I am oh-so impressed with his dynamic game, his movement, how early he takes the ball – the guy’s enjoyable to watch. And I’ve resolved numerous times to pay more attention to his career.

But to no avail. I can’t for the life of me work out why I just don’t give a damn about him. Don’t hate him, don’t love him, just don’t care. He reminds me of that infamous SI cover of Lendl – “the Champion that nobody cares about”, only Davo’s no champion. He’s just a really good player. 

Well I’m happy that he won. Even happier to see his wife was there, now she excludes WAG excellence.

 

2) Oh yeah, the Stanford final. IT DIDN’T HAPPEN.

Aye. Denial was so sweet but it has to be said – the Hamster won. And you gotta give her credit for coming through all those tough three setters against players with bigger weapons or more experience. 

 

“It would be zero degrees outside and we’d sweep off the snow just to practice. People would say I wouldn’t be any good at tennis if I let my dad coach me. That was about the time Venus was just starting out and coached by her dad. She went to No. 1. That helped me develop mental toughness.”

 

Dr Walter Bartoli is well-known for being every bit as eccentric as his “doctor” title suggests. He strikes me as a bit of a mad scientist, and Marion his guinea pig, or hamster, whatever. Even his method of motivation seems rather risque. 

 

“He told me before the week there’s no way I would make the final. Today he said the only goal was to avoid losing 6-0, 6-1.”

Source: tennis.com

 

Umm, if my dad said that to me, he’d be getting no more Christmas cards from his daughter. 

 

3) You don’t want to look at mosaics of the Hamster, do you? How about some pictures of “the real doubles No 1s” – Venus/Rena – instead? 

They look so ridiculously sweet, it warms me to the cockles of my calcified heart.

Gnawwwww… squish, squish:

 

 

4) Over in Gstaad, Thomaz Bellucci joined the likes of Reeshie Gasquet to win “Le Rock“, beating Andreas Beck, 64 76(2).

I’ve only seen Bellucci play once – first round at Roland Garros last year against Rafa. It was actually a close match, by “close”, I meant that Rafael Nadal won in straight sets. But hey Bellucci won more games against Nadal that tournament than Fed did … not that I need to revisit that wound. 

So why do I care about a clay court tournament after the French Open? I don’t. As far as I’m concerned, tournaments on clay after June just shouldn’t exist.

But Bellucci’s kind of a cutiepatootie, isn’t he?

 

 

5) Some other people worthy of a mention this week:

• Like Robin Soderling last week, Tommy Haas‘s winning streak against players not named Roger Federer was finally snapped by Querrey in LA. But it’s just nice to see that he’s followed up his recent successes with another decent run, instead of wandering off to the Land of Lost Souls again. Same goes for JCF. 
• Third time’s the charm – Sam Querrey finally won a title after losing his last two finals. If I were American, I might care. Or I might feel equally uninspired. 
• Not that I actually give a damn about Carsten Ball either. As an Aussie, I fully expect him to fade into anonymity again after a fluky run. Prove me wrong. 

 

6) LA for the girls, Washington for the guys this week. “Proper tennis” only gets better from here..

 

xx doots

 

Images via Dailylife and Getty Images